[COM] Festival Plaza Tower 1 | 115m | 27 Levels | Office

[phenom]

Who is going to lease 40,000 square m of A grade office space in Adelaide? Surely the State Government would not be so stupid as to finance this with a lease after the state bank disaster in the 1990s. That leaves Telstra or maybe a Bank. It is a big ask to get this to financial viability.

I'm purely speculating here but it could well be tied up with the hoped for sale of the govt buildings around Vic Square - given the proximity to Parliament and with the rejuvenation of the north terrace and riverbank areas I'd guess the govt might be keen to shift their ministerial offices to this.

[Shahkar]

...the twin towers will attract...

[Patrick_27]

Haha, wow. What's the bet that once this is built it'll be only 30 years before it follows a similar fate to the Princes Gate Towers which formerly occupied the site of Federation Square.

I don't mind the design but as I've said before, it's crammed onto a tiny site and how will the design blend with the surrounding area. That chunk of North Terrace/Riverside Precinct is already cluttered with a heap of different design elements, do people really want to see another element added before what's already there is improved? (Did that make sense? Haha)

[Jaymz]

Oh wow!! The Walkercorp website says the location of the Festival Plaza is in "Adelaide, VIC"
How unprofessional

[vozdra]

The location really warrants something better. This building will be in Adelaide's 'postcard' view and is in arguably in one of the best locations. Underwhelming proposal.

[Matt]

That building looks fucking horrible.

[mshagg]

I thought we'd moved on from the boxy exoskeleton look some time ago.

[metro]

another short ugly box tower.. I suppose it suits the character of Adelaide with all its short ugly box towers.

Hope this one gets redesigned into something more iconic, like the GLA building and the Gherkin in London, or even.. maybe a bit more like SAHMRI a little further down North Tce.

[Brando]

I hope it's just an indicative example and the final design will be announced later.

[Nathan]

It's just depressing that we've had proposals for three of the most prominent sites in the city (Festival Plaza, GPO and corner of West & North Tce), and all of them have been unimaginative boxes. Not one of them takes advantage of the opportunity afforded to them and instead continue to play the usual Adelaide game of 'maximise floorspace per dollar spent'.

[thecityguy]

I agree with everything you said Nathan. But I think you'll find the game of "maximise floor space per dollar spent" is a pretty logical game played by probably every city in the world


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[Waewick]

I agree with everything you said Nathan. But I think you'll find the game of "maximise floor space per dollar spent" is a pretty logical game played by probably every city in the world


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it is, but speaking to people in the property industry, it is exagerated in this city - you might be suprised that people do sometime want things that looks nice and provide something other than bum on seat.

[obituary resider]

That doesn't actually look too bad imo, reminds me of OMA's recent apartment tower in amsterdam. In such a prominent location, the worst thing would be for an attention seeking highrise building that sticks out like a sore thumb. Sometimes understated simplicity is just whats needed. The most important thing will be the redesign and function of the plaza although my biggest concern is the addition to the casino. That has the potential to absolutely screw the character of the area.

[crawf]

Bye bye!

Hajek’s sculpture between Festival Centre and Parliament will soon be a pile of rubble unless they can be relocated
January 9, 2016 9:59pm
Sheradyn Holderhead Political ReporterSunday Mail (SA)


DON Dunstan described it as “one of the most exciting outdoor art projects in the world’’ when completed in 1977 but Otto Hajek’s sculpture will soon be no more than a pile of rubble.

Most South Australians probably won’t miss Czech-born sculptor’s sprawling creation which no more than a year after opening was labelled “boring and a failure” by the Civic Trust.

But the “garden” of sloping concrete pillars, located between the Festival Centre and Parliament House, managed to find a place in the hearts of a group of thrill seekers.

The Sunday Mail discovered Adelaide City Council has granted the State Government approval to destroy or remove the artworks on the plaza — work which will cost taxpayers $460,000.

SA Parkour Association president Travis Ranson said the plaza was the birthplace of Adelaide parkour and had become renowned as one of the best training grounds in Australia.

“Hundreds of people have learned around the Festival Centre. It will be really hard to have anywhere that parallels it,” he said.

“Since we heard about the redevelopment about four years ago we had been thinking about where the sculptures could be moved and trying to talk to anyone (in Government and the council) about putting in the park lands or somewhere else we could still use them.

“It’s been integral to our community and we want a part of it, even if it’s just so we can have a shrine.”

Hajek’s sculptures between the Festival Centre and Parliament House will be demolished after they were installed in 1977.
Parkour was developed from military obstacle course training and is where people run, climb, jump to overcome obstacles usually in urban environments.

In a Facebook post on Friday the Association told the community “we’ve finally received the (very sad but long awaited) news about the date that the Adelaide Festival Centre site will be demolished — right after the Adelaide Festival/Fringe in a few months”.

“This likely makes January your last chance to train at the iconic spot and birthplace of Adelaide Parkour. Stay tuned for the farewell events running end of January, and our efforts to have our part to play in the send-off.”

In March last year, Premier Jay Weatherill unveiled $610 million plan for the area which included an overhauled public plaza, upgrades to the Festival Centre, a 24-storey office tower and 1560-space underground carpark.

Rebuilding the current Festival Centre carpark, which has been falling apart from “concrete cancer”, was the catalyst for the plaza redevelopment as it’s essentially the roof of the carpark.

As well as the Hajek sculpture, the plaza is also home to many other artworks including the Burt Flugelman’s stainless steel Tetrahedra and the Kaurna Reconciliation Sculpture.

Arts SA director Jennifer Layther said where possible the Government would recondition and relocate the works in the new plaza or surrounding area.

She said that work which would not be reused but were in a “physically robust condition” would be returned to the artist where it was safe to do so.

“Otto Hajek’s work will be deaccessioned. This work, which is comprised of the 3D elements and the plaza itself, will be destroyed in the process of redeveloping the carpark,” she said.

“Not-withstanding the fact that the fabric of the components is failing, it would be a breach of the artist’s rights to deal with isolated components of this multi-elemental environmental work independently.”

“The measures to recognise the Hajek sculptural work in the longer term are being worked through as part of the design phase. Other measures to recognise the work will include a 3D digital model of the work and a collated archive of all relevant material relating to the commissioning of the environmental sculpture.”

Ms Layther said part of the Kaurna Reconciliation Sculpture would be destroyed in the redevelopment so the Government was working with the original artists and Kaurna community to identify a new location for the work which would be recreated using as much of the original as possible.

National Trust of SA president Professor Norman Etherington said while Mr Dunstan “loved the Hajek sculptures”, the wider South Australian public “never really took to them”.

“Like the rest of the Festival Plaza they were allowed to decay by a succession of negligent and thoughtless governments, despite a State Heritage listing,” he said.

“The lesson the National Trust would draw from their demise is that no one can say with certainty what shiny new things will win the respect of future generations.

“The real tragedy of the current plaza redevelopment is not the loss of this collection of sculptures but the permanent loss of public land for new buildings built for private profit.”

[Matt]

Bye Felicia.